The Source of Les Wexner's billions |
Afscme Local 444, retired
The Huffington Post reported yesterday that Les Wexner, the Ohio billionaire who owns what Forbes describes as a “global real estate empire that includes Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works” and is worth some $4.7 billion, is done with the Republican Party.
The Huffington Post reported yesterday that Les Wexner, the Ohio billionaire who owns what Forbes describes as a “global real estate empire that includes Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works” and is worth some $4.7 billion, is done with the Republican Party.
In
2015, Wexner handed over $500,000 to the Jeb Bush campaign for president but
like most of the top bourgeois in the US, having two parties to choose from,
they often donate to both to ensure one of their candidates gets in. Wexner
also donated $2.8 million to “With Honor”
a super PAC that doles out cash to candidates from both capitalist parties.
What a deal, you can’t lose----until now. The title of the super PAC is
confirmation that the old adage that there is honor among thieves is spot on.
As
this blog has pointed out many times, the US is in a severe political crisis as
the two parties that have dominated US society for a hundred and fifty years or
so are in turmoil and in danger of splitting.
Putting it bluntly, the era of the domination or dictatorship of the two
parties of capital is coming to an ignominious end.
“I’m no
longer a Republican”, Wexner announces to the legislators of both parties that
are supposed to represent his interests, and that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore. The nonsense he’s referring to is the
Predator in Chief Donald Trump and his administration as well as the right wing
evangelicals who have infiltrated the party.
The
more strategic sections of the US capitalist class are extremely worried that
Trump is undermining the institutions of capitalism to the point where civil
unrest will emerge sooner than later. The problem with Trump is that he does
not abide by the “Honor Among Thieves” rule.
He is a traitor to his class in that sense and threatens the relative
equilibrium and social cohesion necessary for profit taking to continue
unabated.
The
capitalist class uses racism as a useful divide and rule strategy and need to
keep a healthy tension around that issue in society. They need it to prevent
working people from banding together against them, after all, most workers
recognize that we all have very much the same interests and when our interests
are threatened there is a natural tendency for us to seek class allies, to
unite. They do not want racism to break out in to open race warfare, history
has taught them that this can be very expensive, destructive and unprofitable.
They are forced to use racism to defend themselves against the more populous
working class but they need to control it.
Trump’s
trade war and his international behavior is also a threat. The US bourgeois are
very well aware of what the Smoot Hawley tariffs did. It is likely Trump’s recent threats
to China will be met with retaliation and this could really hurt sections of
the US capitalist class as we have seen with Harley Davidson, the auto industry
and certainly the US apparel market. US workers are also going to be feeling
the pinch further as other countries retaliate and this worries Wexner. The
Wall Street journal recently attacked Trump for daring to suggest Harley
Davidson should lose money (profits) by bringing production on shore. This is
second only to communism as far as sacrilege goes----suggesting such a thing to
capitalists.
Wexner’s
decision is what I want to emphasize here. The motive for his decision was
Barack Obama’s visit to the state. “I was struck by the genuineness of the man; his
candor, humility and empathy for others,”, Wexner says. They’ve got no shame these people, saying anything about
anyone that ensures their interests, social power and lifestyles are protected
and Obama has proven to the US ruling class that he is a solid guardian at the
gate. In addition, he is educated, intelligent, cultured; as is Michelle Obama. They have class. Obama is the consummate
bourgeois politician.
Wexner
owns a 30-room, mansion on a $47 million
336 acre estate, according to Wikipedia. He has one of the largest private
yachts in the world. He is a Zionist and Jewish. As a much more strategic and
thoughtful member of the US elite and as a Jewish American he is rightly concerned about Trump's Nazi and
Fascist base. There were Nazi fliers dumped at the Jewish Synagogue just around
the corner from where I live. This has not happened all the years I’ve lived
here. As the only electoral option these days Wexner turns to the Democrats and
Barack Obama who served the US capitalist class well for 8 years and proved
himself a reliable ally as he rose among the ranks as head of the Harvard Law
Review and a Senator before becoming president.
So
I ask my working class friends that praise the Democratic Party as the way
forward, that put all the “I love Obama memes” on Facebook do you really believe politicians
like him and his party are capable of solving the horror of urban and rural poverty,
homelessness, declining living standards and the never-ending crises we find
ourselves in today? Do you actually
believe people like Wexner and his pal Obama actually have our, (workers)
interests at heart?
It
is inconceivable that Wexner hasn’t talked to Obama like his class colleagues
have and are urging him to step forward and help end this nightmare that is
Trump and co. Help the other capitalist party in to power. Wexner’s praise of
Obama has nothing to do with Obama possessing humility or empathy. And
humility, empathy and a love for the poor are not the qualities necessary for
one human being to accumulate $4 billion. In fact, they would be a hindrance. Obama
hasn’t shown too much empathy for Iraqi’s, Yemeni’s Afghani’s and the poor of
this country. The elite in this country are in crisis and some of them are
becoming desperate and fearful of civil unrest due to Trump’s brutal approach
as that capitalist strategist and free market guru pointed out in an article we published here. Fear, that’s what’s drawn Wexner to Obama. He’s gone to one
person they know works for their collective well being.
I
will end with this. If someone tells me they are not hopeful but we have to
stop Trump elect Democrats and then turn to our problems, in other words the lesser of two evil
argument, I respect and sympathize with the argument, but I believe it is a
flawed one. There is no way out along this road.
Also, that
such an historic event as the US with its brutal racist history electing a
black president is so overwhelmingly emotional for some black folks I can
understand and sympathize with that. I had a good friend of mine admit they
didn’t think he would bring much change but having a respectable powerful black
man and black family in the White House, was so important for her son to
witness, that’s why she voted for him. A successful person that looks like him.
These
are just some thoughts that I had after reading this news.
I
have written enough about racism, political alternatives and how being political
is not simply putting a piece of paper in a ballot box every four years that I
don’t need to repeat it here. The reader if they care to do so, can read the
archives on this blog.
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